Monthly archives for May, 2018

He was tall, lean, and sported a voice tinged with a menacing whine. He invariably dressed to be noticed.

The characters he played enjoyed slapping leading ladies onscreen — a trait that earned him the sobriquet “the sadistic dandy.” No wonder he was one of the biggest males stars of Forties and Fifties film noir.

In a piece headlined, Duryea Says Heel Roles Keep Him Well Heeled, legendary columnist Hedda Hopper wrote that the actor actually consulted a psychiatrist, not on his own behalf but to try and figure out why his nasty screen portrayals elicited such a huge fan response.

It was completely politically incorrect, observed film noir historian Eddie Muller in his informative commentary for the DVD release of 1949’s Too Late For Tears. In that one, Duryea slaps Lizabeth Scottaround.

At the height of his popularity, Duryea was actually promoted and sold by the studios explicitly for his onscreen caddishness. (The one sheet advertising Too Late For Tears shows Scott being struck under the headline, That’s Just To Remind You…You’re In A Tough Racket Now!)

It’s a terrific film, with double cross after double cross, and one of Joe’s favorites. He’s not sure, but he thinks it was the first drama he’d ever seen in a movie theater. Up until then he’d only been allowed to go to musicals and family pictures.

Actually, according to Muller, Duryea’s first big role came in 1945 in director Fritz Lang’sThe Woman in the Window [Blu-ray], in which dangerous Dan as a dead man’s bodyguard hauls off against Joan Bennett. The scene had such an impact on audiences that variations of it were repeated in Duryea’s succeeding pictures. (In Paramount’s 1949 thriller, Dan pitches DorothyLamour off a tall building.)

The actor perfectly played the “McGoof,” said Muller, a term coined by writer DamonRunyon referring to a man who took advantage of women, then brushed them off when he had used them and taken all their money. Duryea did this better than anyone else in movie history.

The reality was that offscreen, Duryea was a cultivated (he studied English lit. at Cornell and grew up in White Plains, N.Y.), stage-trained actor whose private life was the soul of domesticity. His one and only wife, Helen Bryan, was his high school sweetheart. Their 35-year-marriage ended at her death in 1967. (Duryea was 61 when he succumbed the following year to cancer.)

In Criss Cross, director Robert Siodmak’s beautifully photographed (by Franz Planer) 1949 thriller, Duryea is third-billed behind Burt Lancaster and Yvonne DeCarlo as a gambler with syndicate connections with designs on DeCarlo, still enthralled by former husband Lancaster. We first see dapper Dan in an early scene sporting a white tuxedo jacket and fingering a carnation — a real nasty but one with an elegant sense of fashion.

As the title suggests, there are double and triple crossing galore before a climatic double murder as Duryea is nabbed by the cops. Essentially Lancaster and DeCarlo’s film, Criss Cross showcases Dan to excellent advantage. (Triva: DeCarlo’s silent but energetic dancing partner in once scene, uncredited, is a very young Tony Curtis.)

1946’s Black Angel offers a bit of surprise in how it presents Duryea. He is actually a good guy here, a pianist-songwriter who falls for a singer (June Vincent) trying to spring her innocent husband from death row. The villain here is Peter Lorre, who carries off his nightclub owner role with humorous panache.

Dangerous Dan comes off as a pretty nice guy who should have laid off the sauce. In promoting Black Angel, the studio proclaimed the movie was a rarity of sorts — in that costar June Vincent actually emerges unscathed from her many Duryea encounters.

It happened again last night. Joe told himself — “I’ll just watch the credits.” After all it was a movie he’d seen a half dozen times. But of course he watched it all the way through.

The film is over 75 years old but it hits all the right notes of what a movie should be. The subject is timely. Workers’ rights. What protections does an employee have if after 10 or 20 years service they can be let go just because they can be replaced by cheaper labor?

The love stories are current. One couple facing possible separation because the man can’t find job in the same town as the girl and won’t live off her salary. The second (older couple) finding each other late in life, realizing that money isn’t as important as emotional connections.

The acting is superb. There’s comedy. Poignancy.

Back to the credits. The film stars Jean Arthur, name above the title, in fact title card all to herself. It says Frank Ross and Norman Krasna present Jean Arthur.

Then the name of the picture. The Devil (with the face of Charles Coburn)–then the next title card–And Miss Jones (with the face of Jean Arthur). The next card says: With Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, (and in smaller type) Spring Byington, EdmundGwenn, S.Z. Sakall, and William Demarest.

The Devil and Miss Jones, released by RKO in 1941, holds up today. See it. (Don’t confuse it with the porno film The Devil IN Miss Jones.)

Although Arthur is top billed, Coburn is the real star of this movie. He received an Oscar nomination as did writer Krasna. Both well deserved. If you don’t know Bob Cummings work you’ll be surprised at his performance.

In films he was always billed as Robert Cummings although his greatest success was as Bob Cummings on TV starting in 1952 in a short-lived comedy series, My Hero. His roles in such series as Love That Bob, The Bob Cummings Show and My Living Doll made the actor one of the biggest tube stars of the Fifties and Sixties.

And watch for a bit from that great character actress Florence Bates.

The love triangle between senior citizens Coburn, Byington and Gwenn was reprised 10 years later in a delightful film, Louisa.

Miss Jones was a huge success at the time. Made for $600,000 and grossing a million and a half. More importantly, it stands the test of time, the definition of a true movie classic.

How much did you know about Ian Wolfe. (There he is above resembling a dapper Laurence Olivier.)

Remember, while Olivier — obviously a major star — compiled some 85 movie and tv credits over the span of his career, Wolfe — the character actor extraordinaire — logged more than 300. That was life for the best supporting players in the classic Hollywood era. Work, work work!

The roles might have been snippets but great character actors such as Wolfe put their individual imprints on each assignment. You may not have remembered their names, but oh, those faces and voices.

Ok, on to the answers to our Ian Wolfe Quiz. Here we go:

1) Question: Wolfe appeared in this Nicholas Ray movie as a medical doctor surrounded by misunderstood teenagers led by a budding star. Can you identify this 1955 picture and its star.

1) Answer: Rebel Without A Cause, starring James Dean.

2) Question: Wolfe appeared in two episodes of this 1960’s tv series (as Septimus and Mr. Altoz), the original tube version of a spectacularly successful sci-fi title. (Hint: Think William Shatner.

2) Answer: The Star Trek original tv series, from 1966 to 1969 on NBC. It bombed, but took off in syndication long after this three-season network run. The rest is history.

4) Question: In this star-stuffed, 1957 courtroom drama, Wolfe plays the clerk and office manager of barrister Charles Laughton. Can you name this movie’s title and its director (he is frequently cited for his comedies)?

4) Answer: Witness For The Prosecution, which stars Tyrone Power and MarleneDietrich. The director was Billy Wilder.

5) Question: Wolfe is one of the few American-born actor to play Sherlock Holmes. a) True; or b) False.

5) Answer: a) True. Theatrically trained Wolfe had precise, elegant diction, perfect for the Sherlock role. He was often mistaken for being a British actor.

This week’s quiz is about a man you’ve seen scores of times in dozens of films. His face and voice are not all that hard to recognize. But his name?

Today’s Quiz honors perhaps classic Hollywood’s most durable character actor. He certainly qualifies as the busiest. Two years before he died — in 1992 at age 95 — he completed his last movie, Dick Tracy, starring Warren Beatty and Madonna.

By then Ian Wolfe had racked up by one reliable account even more acting credits than our headline suggests. In short, Woolfe appeared in upwards of 300 movie and tv credits.

Although his name sounds British, Wolfe was actually born in the American Midwest, Canton, Illinois, in 1896. His broke into movies in 1934 and stuck around for the ensuing 56 years.

He often played characters much older than he actually was. And his precise diction (a skill seemingly lost by many of today’s actors) reinforced his British stereotype.

He led a relatively quiet life, marrying only once to Elizabeth Schroder, a lengthy union that produced two daughters. He also served as a medical volunteer in World War I.

Ok, let’s see how much you can remember about Ian Wolfe. We’ll concentrate some of the best known movies that he graced. Here we go:

1) Question: Wolfe appeared in this Nicholas Ray movie as a medical doctor surrounded by misunderstood teenagers led by a budding star. Can you identify this 1955 picture and its star?

2) Question: Wolfe appeared in two episodes of this 1960’s tv series (as Septimus and Mr. Altoz), the original tube version of a spectacularly successful sci-fi title. (Hint: Think William Shatner.)

4) Question: In this star-stuffed, 1957 courtroom drama, Wolfe plays the clerk and office manager of barrister Charles Laughton. Can you name this movie’s title and its director (he is usually associated with comedies)?

5) Question: Wolfe is one of the few American-born actor to play Sherlock Holmes. a) True; or b) False.

Jack Albertson won both an Tony and an Oscar for his portrayal of the father, John Cleary, in the play and film, The Subject Was Roses.

He is the latest subject in our series about performers who have won BOTH awards for the same role. It may interest you to know that there are a mere nine actors and actresses who have accomplished this feat including three we have already covered– Jose Ferrer, Anne Bancroft and Shirley Booth.

Can you name the remaining six performers? Hint: all are far more famous than Jack Albertson.

Born in the early part of the last century (1907 to be exact), he was old enough at his death in Los Angeles in 1981 of colon cancer to have successively traversed vaudeville and burlesque, the Broadway stage (of course), television in its early and most creative “golden” phase, movies and then back to prime time tv.

Albertson is probably best remembered today for the popular NBC mid-Seventies series, Chico and the Man costarring the late Freddie Prinze as the upbeat Hispanic maintenance man who insinuates himself into the life of a hard-drinking Anglo widower (Albertson) operating a tattered garage in a East Los Angeles barrio.

The show with Albertson and Prinze in the leads was a big success, running from 1974 until early 1977 when the 22-year-old Prinze, combating drug abuse and depression, ended his life with a gunshot.

Frank Gilroy’s Pulitzer-prize-winning play, The Subject Was Roses, opened on Broadway in 1964, with Albertson cast as one-half of an Bronx, Irish-American couple whose son returns home from World War II military service. (The son was played by a young Martin Sheen, then in his mid-Twenties.) The son’s reappearance unearths long-standing family tensions only tentatively resolved by his final departure from the household.

The play won two Tony Awards, for best play and best featured actor (Albertson).

The movie version came out in 1968 with Patricia Neal cast as Albertson’s wife and Sheen repeating his role as the returning son. Neal was nominated for a best actress Oscar for her performance, but lost out in an anomalous Academy citation that year splitting the award between Katharine Hepburn (for TheLion in Winter) and Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl).

Albertson’s dual victory sparked a robust television career but not much on the feature film front. He was slotted as strictly a character actor for the most part. Among his best known films are 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure, 1970’s Rabbit, Run and as Grandpa Joe in 1971’s Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

Final note: In 1976, Albertson joined another elite circle — triple crown winners. For his role on Chico and the Man, he added an Emmy Award to his Oscar and Tony for The Subject Was Roses.

One of the perhaps perverse appeals of the film noir genre is the fact that woman often do the dirty work, inflicting damage both physical and psychological.

They chew up their male foes for breakfast, and serve what’s left for lunch. These women are NOT to be fooled with.

Lizabeth Scott certainly could hold her own as could Marie Windsor, Jane Greer and AudreyTotter, not to mention Gloria Grahame.

We’re spotlighting today one of the toughest of the group, Marie Windsor.

A former beauty queen (Miss Utah) with serious acting ambitions, Windsor is perhaps best remembered today for her many TV appearances from the late Fifties until the early Nineties. She died in 2000, a day before her 81st birthday.

But make no mistake, she was a formidable big screen actress. She perhaps best illustrates the fascinating aspect of noir films — that it was the women who most often ruled the roost. Men were often portrayed as the weaker sex.

This subversive premise emerged long before anyone much considered of the concept of women’s liberation. Noir dames were true femme fatales, as tough and mean as required, and were proud of it. Since they flourished largely in the Forties and early Fifties, they certainly were way ahead of their times.

Sexy, hardnosed and mean in her crime dramas (don’t let that benign pinup expression above fool you), Windsor was in fact an open-hearted Utah girl offscreen who was remarkably intelligent and well respected.

Costars and such notable directors as Stanley Kubrick admired her for much more than what one scribe calls her luxurious bedroom eyes that accentuated a delectable 5’9″ figure of jaw-dropping sexuality. She was a talented actress who worked hard.

After winning a Utah beauty contest (she was born in the state as Emily Marie Bertelsen), Windsor headed for Hollywood in hopes of emulating one of her screen idols, Clara Bow — all the rage in the 1920’s and known as the “It Girl.”

But unlike Bow,the characters Windsor played in films loved to humiliate men, especially submissive husbands. In Stanley Kubrick’s 1956 thriller, The Killing it’s Elisha Cook Jr. Cook was much abused in a number of noir pictures–the poor guy gets slapped, punched, and, in The Killing, thoroughly emasculated by Windsor. (The unhappy couple is pictured at the top of today’s blog.)

Windsor was memorably paired with noir stalwart, actor Charles McGraw, in 1952’s The Narrow Margin, affectionately described as among Hollywood’s best ever ‘B’ movies.

Although most of her movie roles were in strictly B pictures, Windsor had A-list acting ambitions and studied acting with Maria Ouspenskaya, a Russian-born actress and acting teacher.

Windsor was a tall woman, taller than some of her leading men. George Raft and John Garfield each stood two inches shorter than Windsor’s 5-feet 9-inches. Windsor was trained to bend her knees a lot in closeups with Raft in 1949’s Outpost in Morocco. Windsor costarred with Garfield in 1948’s Force of Evil, one of his best films, and one of hers.

Her place as one of the toughest Film Noir DAMES is assured with the films we’ve mentioned here. See them.

Yes, he was a star. He won the Oscar for Best Actor. And, no, he is not to be confused with Wallace Beery or France’s Jean Gabin, both of whom shared his general acting style and physicality.

Some other things you should know about Victor McLaglen:

— He came from a long line of Scotsman, born in Kent in 1886. He is not Irish despite his most famous role as Gypo, the bibulous Irish Republican Army man in 1935’s The Informer, who betrays a colleague for cash. The role won McLaglen a best actor Oscar and cemented a strong bond with the actor’s prime professional supporter, director John Ford.

— McLaglen was later nominated in the best supporting actor category for his role in Ford’s 1952 drama, The Quiet Man, in which the actor squares off with John Wayne over a sought-after property and the attentions of Maureen O’Hara.

— Ironically, Wayne portrays a former prizefighter in The Quiet Man, which he was NOT but McLaglen definitely WAS.

— The eldest of eight brothers, McLaglen was spared service in the Boer War thanks to the intervention of his father, a Protestant cleric and at the time Bishop of Claremont in South Africa.

— McLaglen was pugnacious by nature (Hollywood gossip mongers tabbed him as something of a “sadist”), and before turning to acting, toured as an exhibition boxer in various circus and vaudeville shows in South Africa, the U.S., Canada and Australia. A big dude, bulky and standing at nearly 6-feet-3, McLaglen was a formidable foe in the ring. (McLaglen later served with distinction in the First World War).

— The actor actually compiled a boxing record of 11 wins, six losses and one draw with nine knockouts. In 1909, he shared the ring with none other than then reigning champ, JackJohnson, who won the title the year before and held on to it until 1915. It was a six-round exhibition bout.

— McLaglen began his Hollywood career in 1925 something called The Beloved Brute. He had already established himself as the resident screen roughneck in a slew of silent titles in England. In effect, he was on his way to successive stardom on both sides of the Atlantic.

— The actor appeared during the silent period with Delores Del Rio in 1927’s The Lovesof Carmen, and a year later opposite Louise Brooks in A Girl in Every Port. With Ford, he starred in 1925’s The Fighting Heart, in 1928’s Mother Machree and Hangman’s House and in 1929’s Strong Boy, and The Black Watch.

— McLaglen sailed into the Thirties with panache, achieving top stardom at Fox. He worked with such diverse directors as Josef von Sternberg (1931’s Dishonored) and Allan Dwan (1932’s While Paris Sleeps).

— Ford cemented the actor’s star status in 1934’s The Lost Patrol and then The Informer. McLaglen even found himself cast opposite Shirley Temple in 1937’s Wee Willie Winkie with both sporting skirts (see the move to see why). Also, watch for McLaglen in GeorgeStevens’ 1939 adventure drama, Gunga Din.

— McLaglen recieved a late career boost playing Sergeant Quincannon in Ford’s so-called “cavalry trilogy;” 1948’s Fort Apache, 1949’s She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, and 1950’s RioGrande. Overall, McLaglen piled up some 124 credits as an actor from 1920 until 1959, the year he died at age 72. A different kind of star indeed.

There she is (above) blissfully posing with a young James Dean, described early and often as the love of her life.

They were an odd couple: Pier Angeli, the daughter of a domineering stage mother from the Italian island of Sardinia, and the mixed-up actor on the brink of stardom from Marion, Indiana.

Dean and Angeli became close while he was making his breakthrough Hollywood feature, East of Eden. He fell for her and she fell for him — hard. She admitted publicly that she was “in love, deeply and eternally” with the actor. The two wished to get married.

The fates — that is, Angeli’s mother, Dean’s business manager, and her parent studio, MGM — were thoroughly put off by the idea. Thus, the marriage never happened, to the deep regret of both principals. He died in a car crash in 1955; she mourned his loss until her suicide at age 39.

More on all this in the answers to our Pier Angeli Quiz questions. Here we go:

1) Question: Pier Angeli’s most enduring Hollywood film, 1956’s Somebody Up ThereLikes Me, is a biopic about a boxer played in the movie by a popular leading man. Can you name this actor, and the real-life pugilist he portrayed?

1) Answer: Paul Newman played the role of prizefighter Rocky Graziano. (Angeli portrayed his wife, Norma.)

2) Question: Angeli was famously married to which one of the following pop singers of the period? a) Fabian; b) Frankie Avalon; c) Vic Damone; or d) Perry Como.

2) Answer: c) Vic Damone. It’s fair to say that Angeli married the Brooklyn-born crooner, who was under contract to MGM, on the rebound post her intense James Dean affair. The marriage was marked by combat, and the divorce came in 1959 accompanied by a nasty custody battle over their son, Perry.

3) Question: Angeli also had her share of notable lovers, a group that does NOT include which one of the following? a) Kirk Douglas; b) James Dean; c) Armando Travajoli; or d) Jean-Pierre Aumont.

3) Answer: d) Jean-Pierre Aumont, the French actor who married Angeli’s sister, Marisa Pivan, and stayed married to her (on and off — the couple got divorced and then remarried) until his death in 2001. Italian bandleader Armando Tavajoli, who was much older than Angeli, was her second and final husband.

4) Question: During a dark period during which she couldn’t find work, Angeli somewhat improbably became very close with which one of the following female stars? a) Joan Crawford; b) Jane Mansfield; c) Debbie Reynolds; or d) Rita Gam.

4) Answer: c) Debbie Reynolds. She and Angeli became pals during their MGM days, and the friendship deepened over time. It was Reynolds who tried to land jobs for Angeli during the latter’s dark, late career days.

5) Question: How exactly did Angeli commit suicide? a) She listened one too many times to her then husband’s latest record album; b) Jumped off a tall building on the MGM lot; c) Overdosed on barbiturates after four previous suicide attempts; or d) Flung herself in front of heavy traffic along Sunset Boulevard.

5) Answer: c) She overdosed on barbiturates. Some sources say it was not deliberate suicide but an accidental death. We have our doubts.

But when a Hollywood scout discovered her, and brought her and her family to MGM, a new name was suggested. The twins dominating mother, Mrs. Pierangeli, would have none of THAT. It was a proud name.

Besides, Anna had at 18 already costarred under her given name with the estimable actor-director Vittorio de Sica in an Italian film, 1950’s Tomorrow Is Too Late. So, what could be wrong with the name assigned to her at birth?

MGM execs explained it was just too long for movie marquees. Finally, a compromise. Her surname alone would be used as both her marquee names. And Pier Angeli was born. (Her sister would take the professional name Marisa Pavan.)

We should note that Pier Angeli’s life, both professional and offscreen, was short and unhappy. There were lost loves, and lost movie parts she intensely longed to play. She died at age 39 of her own hand, one of Hollywood’s legendary suicides.

At one time, though, she was regarded as an actress of real box office potential. The trade journal, Motion Picture Herald, did not name her “Star of Tomorrow” for nothing.

Ok, let’s test your Pier Angeli chops, and see how much you know about this fleeting Hollywood star. As usual questions today and answers tomorrow. Here we go:

1) Question: Pier Angeli’s most enduring Hollywood film, 1956’s Somebody Up ThereLikes Me, is a biopic about a boxer played in the movie by a popular leading man. Can you name this actor, and the real-life pugilist he portrayed?

2) Question: Angeli was famously married to which one of the following pop singers of the period? a) Fabian; b) Frankie Avalon; c) Vic Damone; or d) Perry Como.

3) Question: Angeli also had her share of notable lovers, a group that does NOT include which one of the following? a) Kirk Douglas; b) James Dean; c) Armando Travajoli; or d) Jean-Pierre Aumont.

4) Question: During a dark period during which she couldn’t find work, Angeli somewhat improbably became very close with which one of the following female stars? a) Joan Crawford; b) Jane Mansfield; c) Debbie Reynolds; or d) Rita Gam.

5) Question: How exactly did Angeli commit suicide? a) She listened one too many times to her then husband’s latest record album; b) Jumped off a tall building on the MGM lot; c) Overdosed on barbiturates after four previous suicide attempts; or d) Flung herself in front of heavy traffic on Sunset Boulevard.

Yes, we’re talking about Anne Bancroft, a major star whohad gone to Hollywood in the early 1950s, been signed by 20th Century Fox and made several films, mostly forgettable, then she returned to New York and took Broadway by storm, winning a Tony Award for her portrayal of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker.

The inevitable movie version of the William Gibson play, directed by Arthur Penn, came in 1962, and Bancroft (pictured upper left) registered in a force more than equal to her stage portrayal. She won an Oscar as best actress in a leading role, while costar Patty Duke (upper right) took the prize in the best supporting actor category. (Director Penn was nominated but did not win.)

To recap: the original 1959 Broadway production of Gibson’s drama is about a young Helen Keller, a tempestuous deaf-blind child given to violent rages. Onstage and in the movie version, Duke (who was all of 12 years old when she first played the part) was paired with Bancroft, who plays Helen’s teacher, Annie Sullivan.

Bancroft’s role was one of “frightening complexity,” said one critic, and both she and Duke displayed raw, sometimes physical means to achieve their ends. In any event, she was both inspired and energized by her role, and returned to Hollywood full bore.

Born in New York City in 1931, as Anna Maria Luisa Italiano, the daughter of Italian immigrants, Bancroft studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and at the Actors’ Studio. Her first roles were principally on television. Then, Hollywood — her first picture was a supporting role in the noirish Don’t Bother To Knock costarring Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe (see below).

Bancroft did make some prestige picture appearances including director Richard Attenborough’sYoung Winston, Robert Wise’sThe Hindenburg, and Herbert Ross’The Turning Point. But for better or worse, her most remembered role is that of Mrs. Robinson in Mike Nichols’The Graduate. She was only 36 at the time she played the part of the older sexual “cougar” who seduces costar Dustin Hoffman — who at the time was only six years younger than she was.

Bancroft was married to her second husband, actor-writer-director Mel Brooks (see below), for 41 years until her death of cancer in 2005. She was 73.